


Birthday for a Dead Girl

by Snivy_Thistle



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Aerith is a ghost, Ifalna survived, Sephiroth is Cloud's parent, Sephiroth lives, Vincent Valentine Is Sephiroth's Parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29654073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snivy_Thistle/pseuds/Snivy_Thistle
Summary: It had been one year since it happened. One year since Jenova disguised as Sephiroth killed Aerith in front of all the people that she had gotten to know quite well since their escape from Midgar. The date was February 7th, her birthday. All of her friends decided that they would celebrate anyway. What will happen when their planned party to celebrate the life that she had takes a sudden turn that no one was expecting?
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Servine_Thistle1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servine_Thistle1/gifts).



> I am back. I know that I said that I was going to be on holiday for a while. But I wrote this for my sisters birthday. I also know that it is nearly a month late. The significance of Aerith is that they were both born on the same day, the 7th of February. Happy Birthday, Servine.
> 
> Quick disclaimer:  
> I own nothing. The compilation of Final Fantasy VII is owned by Square Enix. I only own the plot. 
> 
> Many thanks.  
> Now, on with the story.

_'Here lies Aerith Gainsborough'_ was the cursive text that was on the gravestone that they all stood around. It was her birthday on this solemn night. All of her friends were sat in the City of the Ancients. When Cloud put the girl's dead body into the water, they all promised each other that they would give her a proper funeral once the world was saved from the oncoming threat. Vincent was sat in the background looking as melancholy as ever while Yuffie was trying to cheer everyone up.

“Come on guys. It's a birthday, even though the birthday girl is dead. She wouldn't have wanted any of use to be sad on a day like this.”

“Yuffie's right.” Tifa tilted her head to look at the young ninja, “Aerith was so happy while she was alive. Let's celebrate her birthday as we would anyone else, even if she is dead.”

“This would be the first b'day that she'd 'ave 'ad with all of us.” Cloud could see the tears that were beginning to build in the one-arm man's eyes, “Let's just make this the best day that we can. A'ight, let's do this thing!”

The teammates of Aerith ran over to Barret's van to get the birthday supplies that he brought with him. Tifa and Cloud set up a table for Reeve to bring over the large, three-tier cake that they had made for her. Cid and Yuffie positioned the fold-up chairs to stop everyone from sitting on the floor. Vincent silently slid from the rest of the group as he pulled out his newly acquired phone from his trouser pocket and found a secluded area before he began to dial a number.

Vincent put the small phone up to his ear, while he was out of sight of the others. He patiently waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

“Hello” was all that the other voice said after about one minute of waiting.

“Evening. I have a favour to ask of you.”

The voice sighed, “What is it?” it sounded angry.

“Today is the birthday of the Ancient that Jenova killed. And I know that you knew of her existence along time ago. I would like you to come and pay your respects to the young lady. Also, can you please bring her?”

“Okay,” the voice was very masculine and sounded slightly reserved. “You lot are at the city of the Ancients, correct?”

“Yes. I will see you in a little while.”

“Bye.” the other person hung up the phone and Vincent headed back to the group.

When he emerged from the forest everyone turned to look at him. “What?” was his simple one-worded response.

 _'I think they know what you did'_ The little nagging voice in his head proclaimed. Chaos. Why does he always choose the worst times to say something, and why does he always seem to say one word too many.

“Where'd ya go?” Cid stepped away from his spot setting up the table.

“Yeah, we all want to know.” came the tell-tale sound of the strange accented robot cat, created by the ex-Shin-Ra executive, Reeve.

“It does not concern you.”

“Come on, Vince” came the young winy voice of Yuffie. She began poking him, more like jabbing him with her fingers. Vincent ignored her bony fingers that kept on jabbing into his side with her long nails feeling like they were going to cut through his clothes and skin each time. He began to get worried for the safety of everyone as the minutes tolled on with Yuffie continuing what she was doing. The teen motioned for the fighter of the group to come and join her. Tifa rolled her eyes as she sighed, but it was obvious that she was intrigued by what he was doing as well, but she shook her head and refused to join Yuffie. After twenty minutes of Yuffie being continuously annoying, he gave in. Vincent was not getting annoyed or irritated at the young girl's antics, but he could hear the tiny growls of annoyance from Chaos and him continuously stating that he was going to kill her if she continued what she was doing.

“Fine” was yelled through gritted teeth. Vincent's eyes fell to Cloud, in the background, curled up into a little ball with one wing covering his body, and the other was on the floor and was acting almost as a pillow for the ex-SOLDIER. “I was making a phone call to a special person for Aerith. They should be arriving so-”

Before Vincent was able to finish his sentence, a large sounding weight came from the sky and slammed into the ground. As the cause of the new hole in the ground uncurled itself, it was obvious to everyone that it was holding something.

“Wow that was fun.” came the voice of a woman. She light-heartedly laughed, “We should do that again after this is done.”

“Yes, we should.” the other spoke.

The woman was tall with long brown hair and emerald eyes. Her skin was pale and flawless. She looks an awful lot like Aerith, but she had a wiser aura around her. The other person stood up fully. Everyone was shocked to see the sight of Sephiroth standing in front of them with his black feathered wing out fully to stretch it after protecting the woman from the impact.

“Hello Sephiroth” Tifa's voice dripped with venom as she glared daggers into where his heart would be. Yuffie was staring at the exposed chest region, due to the outfit that he was wearing, drooling.

“Heya Sephiroth” Barret yelled from the background, “Whose the priteh lady with ya?”

“Oh, this?”

“My name is Ifalna.”

Everyone but Vincent and Sephiroth gasped at the sudden news. “How can you be here? You're dead.” Cloud questioned in dismay.

“This is a little hard to explain but I will try. As you are all aware, I am a Cetra. I was not born on this planet, instead, I was born on the same planet that Jenova was from. As I was not from this planet when I died, the Lifestream of this one did what it did for Sephiroth but on a different planet. To put it into simple terms, because I was identified as an alien by the Lifestream, I was spat back onto my home planet.” Ifalna finished her explanation and made her way over to the grave of her daughter. “As her friends, do you wish to see her again?” Every single one of them nodded and Ifalna knelt. She put her hands together as though she was praying. Green tendril-like wisps surrounded her. These wisps headed towards Aerith's grave and twisted together. They slowly created the form of a familiar brown-haired, ribbon loving flower girl. Her eyes went to the still form of Ifalna with a saddened look as Ifalna raised herself from the ground.

“Aerith?” came the questioning voice of Cid and Yuffie in unison. Cloud tucked his wings behind him as he looked on in disbelief, while Sephiroth appeared smug and as confident as ever. Yuffie, Cid, Barret and Tifa ran up to the girl and gave her a big group hug. They were all relieved to see Aerith again. Ifalna walked over to Sephiroth before whispering in his ear, “This birthday has gone from a party to a sad reunion of friends.”

“Mum, don't be like that. I am just so happy to see you again. It's been so long.” She sprinted to the form of her parent with tears in her eyes. Ifalna hugged her daughter tightly as her friends gathered around. These friends made this mother-daughter hug into a group hug. Once the sad part of the reunion with the dead girl had happened, the area dissolved into mindless chatter between accomplices while they caught up.

For once, Sephiroth nervously approached Aerith before touching her shoulder. “Yes.” was her only response as she turned around, “Sephiroth?” A shocked look briefly crossed her face, before being replaced by a smile, “It's been a long time. What's wrong?”

Sephiroth took a deep breath before speaking to the lady, “I would like to apologise for the actions that my mother did in my guise. She is not here to apologise and you all thought that it was I who murdered Aerith. I am terribly and truly sorry.”

“Oh, Sephiroth.” Aerith's eyes began tearing up again. A tightening feeling around his waist told him that she had latched herself onto him, “It's fine. I already knew. Zack told me while I was in the Lifestream. Besides, you brought my mum back to visit me. I haven't seen her in so long that this is the happiest day that I've ever had. So I've got to thank you for doing this.”

“No problem” came the cautious reply.

“So Ifalna, how does Aerith being here work?” Cloud was already beginning his interrogation of the young woman.

“It is simple really. For me to do this, I had to give a small amount of my magic to the Lifestream. For as long as Aerith is here, it will continuously take magic from me to sustain her presence at this place.”

Aerith continued to catch up with her friends and get to know the one that she had never met, Reeve, for the next few hours. Ifalna sat on one of the chairs that the group had provided. At the three hours and thirty-minute mark, Ifalna began to pale and look ill. “Lady, y'all 'right?” was the question that was yelled across the area by the ex-astronaut.

“Y-yes. Yes, I am fine,” she replied, breathless. The expressions of worry and concern spread across the features of her new acquaintances. Ifalna slowly got paler and paler by the second as Aerith began to visibly fade. Aerith looked down at her hands and realised that she was going transparent before Ifalna fell unconscious and disappeared. Ifalna's breathing began to get shallower as the accomplices of her daughter surrounded her unconscious frame. Cloud was the first to her side and picked her up bridal style into his arms. He listened to her breathing and heart rate, both very slow.

Worry and panic were written all over his features as he spoke. “Crap. Sephiroth, as the only one here who knows about this kind of stuff in-depth, what should we do?” Cloud's concerned voice was not lost on Sephiroth as he stared at the lady in Cloud's arms. Ifalna looked like a corpse with her body as limp as it was.

“She will recover on her own. However, it is best to take Ifalna to a hospital because she is suffering from having dangerously low magic. So low that she could die-”

“But won't she just return to 'er own planet when she dies, just like last time?” Barret interrupted the tall SOLIDER general.

Worried and annoyed, “She would die permanently because the process of returning requires the person to have some magic so that the Lifestream can determine that they are alien to this planet. Passing from having low magic essentially, she would have no magic in her system at all. The lack of magic would kill Ifalna because Cetras are beings whose bodies rely on the magic in their system to speak with the planet that they are presently on.” Sephiroth replied with spite and spoke to Barret like he was a child trying to learn a concept in a subject that he was having trouble with, but it was actually quite simple. He continued, “Anyway, the hospital can monitor her vitals as she recovers.”

“Okay. We'll fly her over to the hospital that's in Midgar. It'll be faster doing this than going in the airship as the speed of flight that myself and Sephiroth do is faster than any vehicle.”

Tucking Ifalna close to his chest, Sephiroth and Cloud flapped their alien appendages and kicked up dirt as they sped off through the sky. The rest of the group piled into the airship and headed towards the same location.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When they arrived, Cloud and Sephiroth rushed the Cetra into the hospital's emergency room. They both took a seat in the waiting room while the medical staff did their job. After three hours of waiting, a doctor emerged from the room. He strolled up to the two men before speaking. “Her vitals have stabilised and she just woke up. You are welcome to see her. Just to let you know, as per hospital rules she is not allowed any more than two visitors at any one time.”

“Okay. We'll make sure that doesn't happen.”

The doctor nodded before leading them into the room. They stood at the foot of her bed as she stirred from her sleep. She was lying with her brown hair splayed out around her, it looked like she had been positioned for a funeral. Ifalna had a steady heart rate, according to the monitors.

“H-Hello boys” she rasped as her eyes locked with Sephiroth and Cloud. She coughed and Sephiroth moved to offer her some water from the glass next to her bed. She accepted it gratefully and sat up in the bed. “Thank you for bringing me here. However, Cloud I have to sincerely apologise because I was not strong enough to allow you and your friends more time with my daughter. You only got a few hours, when I know that it would have been possible for me to do that for much, much longer.” Ifalna's voice still sounded like it was scraping across her vocal cords as she spoke.

“You could have died. Is the fact that you couldn't give some people who you don't even know what they want all that you think about?”

“Ifalna, you know that we just care about your well being, correct?” she nodded along with the silken voice of Sephiroth. “You will be in here for a few days before the doctors will release you, then you can return to the life that you have been living for the past few years. Do not concern yourself with the thoughts and feelings of my child when it involves your daughter.”

Ifalna nodded and sank back into the pillows that were on the bed before speaking once more, voice clearer, “If it is alright with you two, I would like to be left alone so that my recovery will happen faster as I will produce more magic when I am sleeping than when I am awake.” The boys nodded and thanked her before leaving.

Sephiroth and Clod met up with the rest of the group in a park. Tifa had made a small picnic and they were all sat on blankets while they waited.

“How is she?” Yuffie asked as she took a bite out of a sandwich that she was holding once Cloud had sat down.

“She's fine. On the road to recovery. She'll be out in a few days.”

“Cloud, I have some things that I have to take care of. I will see you later.” Sephiroth had a saddened look in his eyes as he held his arms out for a hug from Cloud. He took the offer and Sephiroth wrapped his arms around his child's shoulders, followed by his wing. They said their goodbyes and Sephiroth took off, speeding through the sky towards Cosmo Canyon.

“Why is he heading to Cosmo Canyon?” Red XIII questioned as he walked up to Cloud's left side to watch the silhouette of the silver-haired, half-alien disappear beyond the horizon.

“He has to inform some accomplices of Ifalna about what happened to her.”

Red looked at Cloud as though he understood what that sentence meant, but everyone else just had quizzical looks across each of their faces. The red lion returned to sit with the rest of the group as the blond joined them as they finished off their picnic.

_\----xxxx----A few days later----xxxx----_

Tifa stood behind the bar with a rag in her hand, cleaning it, as the phone rang.

“Seventh Heaven, how can I help?” she said the same line that she had said so many times before.

“Good morning ma'am. May I please speak to a Mr. Cloud Strife?”

“Of course. One second, let me go get him.” Tifa put the phone down on the bar, speaker down. She walked as fast as she could up the stairs towards Cloud's bedroom. He was in there, staring out the window that he had just opened. “Cloud, close the window. There is someone on the phone for you.”

“Alright.” he pulled the window shut and headed downstairs. He picked the phone off of the bar and held it up to his ear before speaking, “Cloud Strife speaking.”

“Mr. Strife, Miss Ifalna is ready to be taken from the hospital. She has just been discharged. You can bring her home whenever you are ready to pick her up.”

“Alright. I'll come right now. Thanks bye.” he put the phone down before yelling up the stairs, “Tifa, I'm gonna go to pick up Ifalna. See ya later.”

Cloud was out the door before Tifa could respond. He grabbed Fenrir and a bike helmet before staring her up and heading off in the direction towards the hospital.

He arrived in the hospital's car park within half an hour and parked up Fenrir. Turning her off, he pulled the goggles up his face as he finished the rest of the distance to get into the hospital. He walked up to the receptionist and told him what he was there for. The young man directed Cloud to the location of Ifalna. Cloud thanked the man before heading off in that direction. She was in a small isolation room waiting for him. He knocked on the door before opening.

“Cloud, took you long enough.”

“Nice to see you're well too. Come on, let's go. I wanna get you home before nightfall.”

She smiled and followed him out. Ifalna let Cloud lead her to Fenrir. He handed her a helmet before pulling the goggles back over his eyes and they both clambered onto the bike. “Hold on tight, and put the visor down. We're gonna go pretty fast when we get out of Midgar, don't want anything getting into your eyes at that speed.”

Ifalna nodded and wrapped her hands tightly round Cloud's waist so that her hands gripped each other. Cloud started up Fenrir and began their journey. Cloud drove Ifalna as fast as he could around the nearby towns between Midgar and Junon. When they were just on the outskirts of the port town, Clod parked Fenrir up and picked the Cetra up. He flapped his wings and flew her over the sea. They landed in Costa Sol before Ifalna spoke up, “Cloud, why did you drive us to Junon and flew us the rest of the way?”

“That's simple,” he responded as he took a drink of water and offered another to the female Cetra, “Since you'd just got out of the hospital, I didn't want to jostle you too much. If we flew all the way here, yes it would have been faster, but we would have to deal with turbulence. That would result in an unsteady flight. Short distances like from Junon to this town and from here to your house. Feel alright to continue?”

Ifalna nodded and Cloud grabbed her waist once more. A fast, powerful flap of his wings thrust the pair into the air as he headed towards the place that Ifalna was living at. A few hours later, they landed in front of a small house. It was covered in wooden panels and had double glazed windows. The panels were painted a light beige colour and the roof was made of slate. “Thank you Cloud. I hope to see you again. Safe travels on your way back home. Do you want anything to eat or drink before you go?” She pulled the helmet off of her head and pushed it towards him.

“No thank you Ifalna. See you later.” Cloud accepted the helmet gratefully and waved to the Cetra before flying back to Junon to reclaim Fenrir and heading back to Tifa.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I know that this might have seemed a little confusing for you. I will be making a series out of this fanfiction at some point to clear up some problems. Comments are always appreciated, as are Kudos. I will post again sometime once the academic year is done in England, or I might post a Metal Gear Solid fanfiction. I got back into that fandom a little while ago and have a few ideas. We will just have to see what the future holds. See you, readers, next time.


End file.
